How to share with family, friends and community this Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, for those who want to spend time giving back to the community, here are some opportunities to volunteer.

ST. MONICA’S THANKSGIVING DINNER — An estimated thousand people are expected to be welcomed to the 28th annual St. Monica Catholic Community Thanksgiving Dinner from 3 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 21st, in the parish auditorium on Seventh Street.

The dinner is open to the homeless and street people, as well as anyone “who is poor, lonely, broken and struggling with life,” says Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson, pastor of St. Monica.

“This is an opportunity for our community, which is so blessed, to serve and celebrate with their brothers and sisters who are in need,” Torgerson says.

Participants are advised to stand in line as early as noon. A line to the auditorium will form on Seventh Street at California Avenue.

For those who need transportation, there will be free shuttle bus service beginning at 2:30 p.m. across from St. Joseph’s Center in Venice, at the southwest corner of Rose Avenue and Fourth Street.

Four hundred volunteers, most of them from the parish community, make the dinner happen, says pastoral associate Delis Alejandro.

While three parish kitchens are mobilized to prepare the dinner, many parishioners roast turkeys, bake pies and prepare other fixings at their homes and bring them to the auditorium, Alejandro says.

She says that after the dinner, participants are invited to go to a “boutique” at the Trepp Center on the parish campus, where they can pick up cold-weather clothes, toiletries, and other articles, all donated by parishioners, including students and faculty from St. Monica Elementary School and St. Monica Catholic High School, and others.

Volunteers can help with the preparation of meals and banner creation from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and assembly and packing from 2 to 4 p.m. Volunteers can also participate in the delivery and serving at the shelters, or a clean-up of the lodge, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided to volunteers.

Donations are also welcome, including pre-cooked turkeys (well-cooked, 18 to 25 pounds, minus grease), pies, rolls, juice boxes, and water. Vans and trucks are also needed for delivery.